The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-01-06

mine.
"Will you not speak ?" murmured,
bending over her.
"speak I" she cried, chow can 1?
There is more to say than you,'in your
widest inse;iniDgs, can ever dream.
You should have heard me before you
said 60 much. Now you have silenced
me, and the wretched words which should
come from MY lips would choke me if
tried to say them"
s.Then leave them unsaid."
"Justice to you demands that should
speak"
"Justice to me demands nothing
which can distress you," interposed.
"You do not know how much I have
to say about"
"stop?" cried. There are but two
things l wish to know. If you will tell
me them, all is DONE"
"SpeakI What are they?"
care you wife7"
"No."
"Is any living man the possessor of
your hearth"
Again the rich crimson tide swept over
face, neck and shoulders. She placed
one of her trembling, burning hands
upon mine, glanced sbyly up into my
eyes, and then looked down.
"Why do you not answer?" I asked,
fearing that my fondest hopes were vain.
"Do you not know?" she cried; "can
you not see-are you really so blind z"
I feared to look at her. 1t seemed to
me, then, that had been beguiled to her
rooms merely 10 furnish her sport. l had
forgotten the danger l had rescued her
from, and only remembered that loved
her to be- made, as I believed, the object
of her mirth aud caprice.
II see," 1 said turning away. ~ am
not so blind as you think. am nothing
to you, because you already love"-
She seized me by the shoulder and
turned me around. Then she threw her.
self into my arms.
"I only love you," she murmured.
1t was the first, the only happiness of
my life, and I felt that all the sorrow and
misery of the old dead days but made
this moment the sweeter. lifted up her
notwithstanding face, bent my head,
and then, for the first time in my life,
my lips touched the lips of woman.
Earth never knew purer kiss.
When the hour came for me to 60 she
twined her white arms about ny neck,
and her eyes filed with tears.
"Partings-continua partings," she
said. "That is all life seems to hold !
Why must we part?"
"The day may soon come when we need
not part" I answered. 1T is for you to
say when that day shall be.'
II am yours whenever you want me,
she murmured, creeping more closely to
me.
"Theu," 1 cried, you shall be my wife
tomorrow !"
For moment she was silent, but there
was another sound in the room; sound,
too, which at frut made her shudder. 1t
was such tremulous cadence as might
be brought from lutte if one lightly
touched all Of its chords at once, ouly
that it ended with Sigh. Three times
the sound was repeated, and each time it
was fainter than before.
My wonderment was banished instant
ly by an unexpected caress on the part of
my betrothed. Standing upon her tip.
toes, she had raised her lips to mine and
kissed me.
"It shall be as you say" she said smil-
ing at my surprise.
The next day we were married.
For gear we lived together in uuin-
terrupted happiness, sometimes in Rome,
sometimes ia Florence, sometimes 10
Venice. As she seemed most contented
in the latter place, we were there the
greater part Of our time.
On the anniversary of the day of our
first meeting she vas strangely quiet and
downcast. Atnightfall we stood together
in the same balcony where, a year before,
she sang that sweet French ballad as ray
| gondola was passing. My arm was about
her waist, and / could plainly feel the
beating of her heart.
"Why are you 80 agitated, and yet so
quiet 2" I asked.
"I cannot answer you now," she said,
"but I beg that you will sit here and
hold me in your arms until midnight"
Presently she seemed calm again, and
once more the French ballad rang out
along the lagoon from her perfect throat.
Apparently there was no change in the
scene, outwardly, since the year before.
Barges and gondolas were fitting about in
all directions, and from everywhere came
music, laughter and merry voices.
My wife sang song after song, until she
was tired, and then, pulling my face
down to hers with both her hands, she
kissed me.
"It was just year ago tonight" she
said, ",bat you first came to me. I had
already seen you many times, and loved
you with my hearts first love. sang
that night because-I hoped that my song
might reach your ears and bring you to
me. You did come under my balcony,
and kissed the lilies that your hands
threw to me. Danger came, and you
saved me. You loved me at once, and
30 we we're married. Since then 1 doubt
if God, whose eternal curse I once thought
was upon me, has ever given 80 much
happiness to any woman"
Her large dark eyes we're luminous
and full of tears, and her face had never